anybody have the line change problem in BAP? or maybe that's been discussed already? sometimes when i try to change lines my pro keeps getting on the ice, then returns to the bench, and that keeps happening for all 3 or 4 forwards. At that point I have to wait for the next whistle for things to get back to normal. It is supremely frustrating. anyone have this problem?

Yeah I wouldn't want Reid for anything. He hasn't proven that he's capable of coaching anything but a runner up. Not what I want in a coach.

Yeah, true...5 NFC championship games in a decade is piss poor. Always the runner up...it's never the players' fault?? You can only coach to a point, you can't win the game FOR them for crying out loud. I will say that Reid is apparently very stubborn, and if he would just look at 2004 and what happened when the eagles had a stud receiver....

congrats to the cards and their <true> fans. For all those that jumped on the Cards bandwagon...hey, enjoy the ride, but I've got no love for you.

and the cardinals and their fans say they don't get any respect?! lots of people here AND all the talking heads on ESPN picked the Cards except Steve Young and Boomer (who always picks the Eagles).

The Cards are getting plenty of respect, and it is well-deserved. This should be a fun game to watch, and might give me a heart attack or two. It'll be tough for the Eagles to slow down the Cards passing attack, especially playing in AZ. But if the Eagles don't turn the ball over like the Panthers did 24 times last week, they should be able to keep it close.

I think the Steelers will beat the Ravens if they take care of the ball.

I'd hate to do it, but I'm picking against the Eagles as well...if the game was in Philly, different story, but I think the warm weather and comfort of playing at home to go your first super bowl will provide enough fire to get the Cards through. Steelers v. Cards in the super bowl. Man...i hope I'm wrong as usual!

I think the fear is somewhat exaggerated. It would take quite an effort I believe, to pull it off, and I just don't see most hate mongering racists having the ability to do so. It's one thing to send racist cartoons, and another to actually commit to and succeed in assassinating a president.

There was a lot of hate for Bush, and I don't think there was any sort of attempt or plan, even.

What exactly are you basing this information on? How do you know there was never a plot on W's life? The SS are probably very, very adept at gathering intelligence and stopping these things before they have a chance to happen...but then...where were they when not one, but two shoes were hurled at W? I thought it was pretty funny that the guy was able to get the second shoe off, and with surprising accuracy.

what about Dick Tracy...does that qualify? That's way better than The Godfather anyway. Kidding...how could I be serious...I've never seen The Godfather. I've been meaning to see it, just need to set aside 20 hours of my life. Then after I watch the first one, I can decide whether or not I want to complete the series.

I've seen Carlito's Way, Goodfellas, Donnie Brasco, Reservoir Dogs, The Untouchables, The Departed, and Road to Perdition, as well as a bunch PeteRock listed that others think might not fit with the genre. I loved all of the above. The Departed...I thought the ending was a little ridiculous, but overall a great movie.

The Dark Knight is definitely a stretch, while there are subplots involving the mafia, the mafia is not the focal point of the movie.

As an Eagles fan, I send my condolences to all the Giants fans out there. There are many teams whose fans are as rabid as the team's linebackers...and those, IMHO are the fans of the Eagles, Giants, Steelers, Raiders, Redskins, Bills, Browns, Bears, Chiefs, and Packers. There are a couple I left out I'm sure, but those are the ones I could think of right now...and with past playoff disasters in mind for the Eagles (2002, 2003)...I know the feeling...

Screw them. Feel bad for is a Giants fan!?!?! Are you insane? How many Super Bowls have they won? When did they win one last? Someone was going to go home after the game yesterday and the world is a better place because it was the Giants. They aren't the Bills. They are the Giants.

Feel bad for Patriots fans after the biggest choke in sports history? How about the Yankees after '04, in the second biggest choke in sports history?

Those teams had playoff disasters, everyone was dancing in the streets.

I don't care if Giants fans have to cut off a finger just to watch a game on TV, my day is better every time they lose.

I don't hate their fans or players personally, I just love when they lose!

Don't get me wrong...I LOVE to see the Giants lose...especially to the Eagles. But when a playoff team, especially one that people expect to go to the Super Bowl and win it, throws in a stinker like the Giants did in their home stadium...I can't help but feel for the fans. I could give a crap about the Giants themselves...they've definitely surpassed the Cowboys as my most hated team ever...but I don't hold any contention with their fans. I was actually watching the game Sunday with a Giants fan and I know several others, and I know that game must have been as agonizing for them as the Eagles disasters in 2002 and 2003 was for me to watch.

A bit of nostalgia...PeteRock and I watched the loss to Tampa Bay together...and I remember seeing him after the game...head in hands sitting on the edge of his bed...still with his eagles hard hat on. I can't remember ever feeling worse after watching a football game in my life, and his body language summed up how all of Philly felt that day (and again a year later).

Have fun at the game sunday Pete...i must continue the ritual of heading down to my brother's place to watch the game...whether he is there or not. Can't stop the routine now!

obviously i'd love to see the eagles go...but if they can't i'll root for the cards. ravens v. cards has the potential to be very good...but it also has the potential to be very bad. i guess you could say the same for any of the potential matchups...

As an Eagles fan, I send my condolences to all the Giants fans out there. There are many teams whose fans are as rabid as the team's linebackers...and those, IMHO are the fans of the Eagles, Giants, Steelers, Raiders, Redskins, Bills, Browns, Bears, Chiefs, and Packers. There are a couple I left out I'm sure, but those are the ones I could think of right now...and with past playoff disasters in mind for the Eagles (2002, 2003)...I know the feeling...

The Eagles though, are right now playing the role that the Giants did last year. They're riding an unbelievable wave of good fortune and they're executing just enough plays to get the job done on offense while their defense is really carrying them. They are not playing up to their full potential yet...and I don't think this team will for one second look past the Cardinals. The Cardinals are a good team and the Eagles know what happened in the Thanksgiving game will have no bearing on what happens on Sunday...this time things will be different. The Cardinals are riding quite a wave of their own, they're playing really good football in all phases, as evidenced by their all out beating of the Panthers on the road this past weekend. This is their first taste of the NFC Championship game as a club since who knows? I think this will be another gut wrenching game for both sides.

I'll be rooting for a Turnpike Superbowl...but could easily see it go completely the other way. Either way...it'll be a refreshing and interesting Super Bowl no matter what.

I am speaking, currently, of Call of Duty (both 4 and 5) and NHL 09. Playing all of these on the 360 these days. Love to play them for hours on end. SUCK HORRIBLY AT THEM. Seriously, why do I keep subjecting myself to this abuse?

Let's start with Call of Duty. Started playing CoD4 on the PC when it came out, then switched to 360 when I finally got the console. I was always middle of the pack - never one of the 25-3 guys, but I got to where I wasn't always one of the 3-25 guys, either. In CoD5 I'm about the same - mostly I get 6-8 kills, along with 6-8 deaths. Anything above 10 kills is just stellar for me, and exceedingly rare. On any given night I'll almost always have a dismal match where I get 2 kills and die 15 times. Oftentimes I'll have several of these in a row. And yet I don't stop playing. Is it the "just one more match" thing? The fact that they're short? Is it getting in on the "fun of playing with GTers" aspect? I have no idea. I'm quite certain that I'm not going to get any better than I am now, because I have no idea what it is I'm doing or not doing that keeps me at my level. And yet I don't stop playing.

NHL 09 is getting to be the same way. Playing in game, I can take the difficulty level down to a point where I can at least score, and have a decently fun time of it, but any online games with friends I get destroyed in. I can't figure out the puck control and deke system for the life of me. I see videos online of the deke possibilities but I have literally no clue how any of that is actually done with the controller, the manual is worthless, and I'm not finding any game guides that break it down. So in the end, I keep happily skating to my doom over and over.

At least I can always take a break and go 5-star Green Grass & High Tides in Rock Band.

i had this EXACT conversation earlier today...about the same two games...weird. What's your gamertag? maybe we can commiserate over a game of NHL 09

I finally got it out and put it together. I took a few pictures of my dog with it and was surprised at the quality. It looks really good. I will take more pics to try to get better. I tried a few different settings to see the subtleties of each mode.

Does anyone have a good idea for a bag? I'm going to need one for the trip.

Depends on how much you want to spend. Go to amazon.com and search for 'ape case' and some nice, inexpensive bags will pop up. I'm thinking about getting the large shoulder bag, because i have so much gear. For you, the small or medium might be fine.

Or you could go the backpack route, but then it's tougher to access your camera because you have to take the pack off your back and set the bag down somewhere, where with a shoulder bag you can pull the camera out on the fly.

also...with your Nikon D40 the image sensor is 'cropped' (meaning it is smaller than a negative for one of those old 35mm SLRs)....and what that means is you have to multiply your focal length by about 1.5 (not sure what it is exactly for the D40). so...your lens is really about a 27-75

Does he still need to do the 1.5x focal length conversion if he's got a DX lens?

Lenses have nothing to do with the crop factor, only the camera body's sensor size affects the crop factor. If it's a full frame sensor (like in the EOS 1DS) there is no crop factor, the sensor records as much area as a film negative (35mm format). But most DSLRs right now have smaller sensors, so a lens that was 200mm on a film camera effectively becomes a 350mm lens on a cropped-sensor DSLR. That same lens would actually be a 200mm lens on a DSLR with a full size sensor, like the EOS 1DS, which is a $9,000 camera

The "f/3.5-5.6" indicates how much light your lens can let in. A lower "F-stop" means more light let in, so the lower the f/ number the better your lens will do in low light conditions. I could be mistaken on this point but I believe the f/3.5-5.6 range indicates that your lens will open as wide as f/3.5 at its wide angle extreme and only up to f/5.6 at its zoom extreme. If the majority of your shooting will be in the daylight that will be just plenty. Just be sure to use the flash for your nighttime wife & coworker snapshots.

you are 100% right about that. A lot of zoom lenses are variable aperture, so on the wide end you'll be able to let in more light with the lower f stop, but if you zoom it out you'll lose a few stops.

and Graham for your trip, like wonderpug said...that lens should suit you just fine. Use the 18mm setting (widest angle your lens is capable of) for scenic stuff and zoom in to 50mm for shooting people (unless it's a large group...then you'll want to zoom back out a bit to fit everyone in there).

I'd stick with that lens for now, get to know how to use it, see if you even ever need anything else.

also...with your Nikon D40 the image sensor is 'cropped' (meaning it is smaller than a negative for one of those old 35mm SLRs)....and what that means is you have to multiply your focal length by about 1.5 (not sure what it is exactly for the D40). so...your lens is really about a 27-75, which is a really good range and unless you get into photography more and more, should be all you need.

when we talk about focal length, just think of having two magnifying glasses...if you started with them at 18mm apart and then widened that gap to 200mm...you'd see the image in the magnifying glass get much, much larger. That's kind of how a lens works. so when you start shooting nature, you'll want a 200mm or 300mm lens

I've just realized that i am totally living the role of Ray Romano in his tv sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond. Let me count the ways (I am using this as a way to vent my frustrations after 8 long days of family "bonding," which culminated in today's 16 hour frolic in the Magic Kingdom with my parents, sister, niece, wife, and our two kids...so please feel free to ignore me or tell me to shut the hell up).

1. I am totally clueless about what the women in our lives really want us to do, and I'm not sure I will ever know. Maybe that's what being a guy is all about? But I was sure I had them figured out...not so. I am Ray Romano.

2. My mom is Ray's mom from the show...no doubt...she behaves just like her. She might not be quite as openly rude...no, actually she is. She will shoot glances around the room when she hears something that she doesn't like, she will make it clear to everyone that what she thinks is right, and that what you think is certainly not right. She can be a sweetheart don't get me wrong...but under the right (or should i say wrong) circumstances, she becomes the spawn of Satan. Case in point, in hour 13 of our escapades today, it was time to settle in to watch the disney light parade which starts at 8PM right near the entrance to the magic kingdom. My mom had been lugging her bad hip around the park with us, keeping up pretty well for most of the day. By 7PM she was gassed and in severe pain. We were about 12 or 13 rows of people deep from the parade route...and all the people in front of us were sitting down while we waited for the parade to start. Keep in mind as I go forward...WE WERE STANDING, everyone else in front of us was sitting. Parade starts, a few folks start to get up, stretch out. I can feel the tension in my mom begin to reach new levels as time passes and as more people stand up. Finally about 50% of the people in front of us who had been sitting are now standing (just like we've been doing all along). She is so pissed off that our kids and my niece might not be able to see the parade as well that she lets out this roar and screams at the top of her lungs 'SIIIIIIT DOWWWWWN.' My mom is German, so these things sound a lot funnier (and scarier) when you can actually hear the accent in person. Funny enough...the people sat back down. Although incredibly obnoxious and inappropriate, her bellow proved very effective, I'll give her that.

We've known for years the only way to tame the beast is to feed it. Sit my mom down and give her some food...she'll calm right down and be your friend again, as if nothing had ever happened. That is, until that food stipend wears off.

3. My dad is a variant of Ray's dad from the show. For the most part he will try to calm mom down, but when he's had enough...look out. He will throw it back and then some, and that only fuels the fire. It's certainly fun to watch, but sometimes it can be very uncomfortable when you're sitting down to Christmas dinner and there's a war of words unfolding in front of everyone. Sometimes I'll say something like 'Mom, this gravy is a little saltier than it usually is' and that will just not go over well (see #1.).

4. I don't know if there is a character on the show who equates...but my sister is the moocher of all moochers. Granted, she doesn't have much disposable income...in fact, I'm not sure she has any disposable income at all. She's 44 and she's finishing up college and trying to be a single mom, life ain't peachy for her, I get it. But when you don't bring your wallet to the magic kingdom and expect that your family members will sustain your life for the day, it gets old real quick...especially when that effing Mickey Burger costs $7 a pop. Get your own.

I'm going to stop now for reflection on what else I can vent about from today's events. And I'd love...LOVE to hear some stories from others about life with their family/in-laws

I also found the The Digital Photography Book 1 & 2 by Scott Kelby to be helpful.

These are great books to help you immediately get better without having to learn 'why' you're supposed to change ISO, aperture, or shutter speed. There is a very good section in there about shooting landscapes and another on how to shoot people. I have both books and can also recommend them. For instance, these books will teach you how to make your subject really stand out by creating a blurry background (paraphrased from book 'set your camera to its lowest f stop [f/2.8 or 3.5, whatever it is], aim at your subject and press shutter button halfway to focus, recompose, and snap the shot. And if you check your LCD, you'll notice that your subject is in sharp focus while the background is completely blurred, which really makes your subject pop out in the picture').

Another one I want to get is called 'Understanding Exposure' by Bryan Peterson. That one is recommended by Scott Kelby in The Digital Photography Book.

The D40 is great...but the camera can only do so much. To take great photos you need to have a good eye, take a look around. It's all about shooting from angles that people don't usually see. I would definitely buy Scott Kelby's 1st volume and read it through BEFORE your trip. You'll be glad you did.

As an aside...Nikon obviously makes fantastic stuff...no doubt. Their glass though, is incredibly expensive, which is why I shoot Pentax. You can get great Pentax glass at half the price of Canon/Nikon stuff. Some might say it's not as good, but in the right hands, it's just as good. I can't say I'm there yet...but I hope to be someday.

If you need help with anything else photo related, feel free to email me at [email protected]. i'd be happy to help you gear up for your trip.

About the flash...for indoors off-camera flash is totally necessary. pop-up flash is a joke, it is really harsh and really flattens out your image. For outdoor shots...a little fill-in flash with the pop-up flash works well sometimes for pictures of people. You can buy a diffuser for your on-camera pop-up flash that softens the light by spreading it out. That gives your pics a much more natural look, and it's a lot less expensive than buying an external flash unit.

from what i've read (and played a little bit) 08 is pretty good. Haven't played 09 much, but I'd get 08 for $30 and by the time you're through with it, 09 will be on sale too. 09 was $38 at CC just a few weeks ago...maybe wait for another deal like that to come around.

Once I tweaked the difficulty sliders using the custom difficulty, I started liking the game a lot more. I had been using the My Skill difficulty, and since I did so well on the madden test in running...that running in an actual game was impossible. Now that I've tweaked it, the game is alot more fun. And it is definitely better than 08, way better, I just wouldn't think with all these other games out there that Madden is even in the same class.

These days I think we're spoiled too...imagine going back in time maybe 10 years ago...they'd crap their pants when they saw this game. It's definitely good (even though I stink), just not GOTY.

Now: please release an expansion map that goes through a zoo... where some of the animals are out and just vicious, some are out and zombified vicious, and there are the standard zombies, too.

That sounds like the best idea I've ever heard...

Left 4 Dead is my pick...but the only other game I've played that came out this year is Madden 09...and that, well, is in no way a contender for GOTY.

Left 4 Dead is a fantastic game in any mode offered. Single player prepares you for the multiplayer by putting you in the mix with capable bots that save your hide when you need it. The first time I played the game...within 2 minutes I was vomited on by a Boomer without even knowing what a Boomer is...and then came the horde, and a Hunter...and I wanted to take the game back to the store because I thought it'd be ridiculous throughout. But as I played more, I realized how brilliant the game is. The game is never the same twice no matter what mode you play. The special infected are so creatively designed, and once you start playing with capable human teammates and opponents...the game realizes its full potential. Like SL said in the first post...teamwork has never been made so agonizingly important. In this game it's either stick together or die alone. I have yet to fully grasp the strategy that should be employed while playing as the Infected, but I'm sure once I learn the game will reach new heights.

Another reason I love this game so much is because it's so very easy to tell your enemies apart from your friendlies. I still shoot up my teammates while trying to save their hide (at a pretty alarming rate actually) but I can immediately tell who I need to kill and who not to shoot. In a fast paced multiplayer environment, that is a major plus for me and adds a lot to the fun factor.

I'd love to these for a spin as well: FO3, Dead Space, GOW2, Mirror's Edge, Fable 2, COD5 not in that order. So many games...so little disposable income...

I think SL summed up the evening with the constant refrain: Ridiculous.

One of the great things about Versus is that you can have just as much fun watching how the opposing team takes you down. There was a moment before the cornfield where we were keeping our eyes on the car carrier and a Boomer puked on all of us from behind a tree across the road. Brilliant. At moments like that, I wish we could have open communication to say, "Well played, sir" or something less pompous. And that happened a bunch of times last night, not just that once.

*Points proudly to self* That was me! I was praying the whole time I was behind that tree that you guys wouldn't randomly shoot at it .

That might have been the only random tree I didn't shoot at...I thought the vs. mode was a lot more tense than the campaign mode.

You guys did way better than us in that game. It's a bit of an adjustment for me going from L4D PC version to the 360 version. The controller for one, I'm a mouse and keyboard guy, lol. The hunter pounce timer seems to be shorter on the 360 compared to the PC version too.

Good game all in all.

I think both teams had a couple rounds where we played really well. You guys were steamrolling us in that last round until you got to the cornfield...

The versus added such a different perspective than just trying to survive...I'm sure once we all get the hang of controlling the zombies this game is gonna be off the hook ridiculously fun. I can't count how many survivors I tried to pounce and missed with the hunter, how many i missed with my Boomer vomit. And there is something so rewarding about dragging a helpless survivor 75 feet towards you with your tongue while the horde of zombies descends .

My biggest problem was I just didn't feel any motivation or attachment to what was going on in the game. There just wasn't anything to draw me in. No storyline, no interesting characters, as we fought our way through wave after wave of zombies, there just seemed to be no point, no motivation. Nothing to make me want to see what happens next. I really wanted to like the game, and I was excited to play co-op with Knightshade. But as we played I just lost interest and got bored. While the gameplay may be tense and exciting, that's all there seemed to be to the game. Fighting through zombies to survive. But why? I couldn't find a reason, and because there was no attachment I just didn't find any reason to continue. I was amazingly underwhelmed and terribly disappointed with how little there was to the game.

I've played through many, many shooters. And this one just had no personality, nothing interesting to set it apart from any other generic shooter. I can get the same experience from a quick add-on to COD:[email protected]

Pete I had a similar reaction to this game when i first loaded it up and played the single player game. I just didn't get it. It was disappointing to me that there are only about 5 weapons to choose from, and only 4 story paths. But after playing it with Sensuous and some of his friends, I had an absolute blast. The special zombies are well thought out (when you're vomited on by the Boomer the stench attracts the horde of zombies towards you...BRILLIANT!, when the smoker gets you with his tongue and slowly pulls you in...BRILLIANT!) and there are subtle audio cues (and some not so subtle [Tank]) to let you know which ones are lurking (or barreling towards you [Tank]). I do wish there were more variety, but as it stands, it's a lot of fun to play.

Another very nice aspect to the game, and one that adds much to the replay value considering there are only 4 scenarios, is that every time you play each scenario the enemies come from different places. i guess my point is, after playing it for 30 minutes I felt a lot like you did...very disappointed and somewhat bored. But after playing with 3 friends, the game gets very addictive and starts to become a lot more fun.

Pete, I'm just getting back in the swing of things and it'll be quite some time before I get any of the games you are currently playing. So I won't be offended if you take me off, or have done it already.

It's not like you respond to any of my messages anyway where did it all go wrong.